Railroad.



UNITED STATES;

Patented February 14, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

RAILROAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 782,398, dated February 14, 1905.v

Application filed November 5, 1904. Serial. No. 231,575.-

To @ZZ whom, if may concern:

Be it known that I, CLARENCE H. HOWARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at St.

Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railroads, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a railroad, and has for its object to dispense withy the fastenings ordinarily used for securing the rails to the ties toprevent therails from spreading and to maintain their alinernent, continuity, and rigidity at the joints.

The invention consists in features of novelty, as hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, whereon Figure l is a perspective View of the end portions of two adjoining rails and the body portion of an opposite rail combined with a metallic tie and forming therewith a part of my improved railroad-track; Fig. 2, a longitudinal section to enlarged scale through a portion of the tie and a cross-section through the corresponding part 0f one of the rails on line 2 2 in Fig. l, showing the rail in position before being secured to the tie; and Fig. 3 a similar view to Fig. 2, showing the rail and tie fastened together or combined in one piece.

-Like letters and numerals of reference de.- note like parts in all the iigures.

c represents a Inetal railroad-tie which is composed, preferably, of cast-steel integral throughout and may be of any desired crosssection and configuration.- On or immediately above the tie aK at one side are placed the end portions of two adjoining rails b, between the ends of which a space l is left, as indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1. Onthe other side of the tie c is placed the bodyportion of a rail c, a space 2 being preferably left between the base of the rails c and the tie, as hereinafter more particularly referred to. The tie a is preferably formed for its entire width on the inside of the rails b and c, respectively, with a lug which isintegral with the body of the tie a and overhangs the inside flange 3 of the rails 7) and c, so as to leave a space 4 between the under side of the lug d' and the iange 3,

as shown. The tie a is preferably formed on the outside of the rails b and' c, respectively, with a lug e, which is integral with the body of the tie a and located opposite to the outside flange 5 of the rails b and c and to the adjacent lower portion of the web 6 at a suitable distance therefrom, the face of the lug e being preferably inclined upward from its junction with the tie a toward the web 6, so as to form a space 7 betweenthe said face and the web 6 and flange 5 of the rails b and c. By this oonstruction of the lugs Z and e the rails I) and c are readily placed and adjusted to their proper position onto (or immediately abovelthe tie a between the lugs 0l and e, and when in this position they are welded to the tie a (and in the case of the rails to each other at the ends) by any suitable process, such as that known as the thermit process, which consists in cleaning the surfaces to be united, placing the pieces at a suitable distance apart, forming a suitable mold about the same, igniting a mixture of a\metal compound and aluminium, removing the alumina resulting from the reaction taking place, and casting the highly-heated metal'between the joint-surfaces, which fuses and incorporates the metal of the rails and c and the tie a at and adjacent to their jointsurfaces with the welding metal and with each other, and thereby renders the whole integral, the welding metal filling the space 1 between the ends of the rails b and the spaces 2, 4, and

' between the. rails b and c and the tie a, re-

spectively, the metal within the spaces 7 forming lateral bracing to the rails Z) and c.

If desired, the lugs d and e may be dispensed with and therails I) and c welded directly to the tie c by the welding metal, which lls the spaces 2 between the base of the rails Z) c'and the tie a, or when thelugs d and c are used the spaces 2 may be dispensed with and the rails b c supported directly on the tie a and welded to the lugs d and e.

By this invention the rails are rigidly secured to the ties without fastenings, and thereby held in constant alinelnent and gage.

I do not claim the particular method above described of welding the rails to each other and to the metallic ties, as the welding may be effected by any well-known process for Weldties an integral railroad-track, substantially I0 ing metal pieces together; but as described.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to In testimony whereof I have signed my name secure by Letters Patent. sto this specification in the presence of two sub- 5 The combination of two opposite series of scribing` witnesses.

rails supported and held in parallel alinement CLARENCE H. HOIVARD. to each other by a series of metallic ties, the IVitnesses: rails of each series being Welded to each other O. T. LEDFORD,

and to the said ties, and forming with the said EDWARD W. FURRELL. 

